Heathrow’s third runway is not happening – move on

Rumours that the government was about to perform a U-turn on its decision to scrap a third runway at Heathrow crescendoed over the weekend. It turns out that’s all they were: rumours. The Financial Times quotes George Osborne’s office: “There is no softening on the question of a third runway at Heathrow.” This is significant, as the chancellor was the man consistently fingered as pushing for a review of the policy on Heathrow.

So where did the rumours come from? They have been spread as part of a sustained campaign by the aviation industry to overturn the third runway decision. But they were given impetus by Osborne’s autumn statement last year, in which he signalled that new runways in the south-east of England, ruled out in the coalition agreement, were a possibility. He said the government would “explore all options for maintaining the UK’s aviation hub status, with the exception of a third runway at Heathrow”. Although the statement specifically excluded Heathrow, it allowed the industry to claim that the pro-growth chancellor was secretly trying to engineer a reversal of the decision to scrap a third runway.Full Guardian article here…….